please allow us in a few words to introduce our organisation. The Aristocratic
Association of Slovakia is a multinational organisation with the seat in Slovak
Republic, which associate the noblemen independent of their nationality and
religion. It means, the name of our Association does not mean, that we are
joining the "Slovak Aristocrats".

Our Association has a specific function. The geographical position of Slovakia
is in the middle of the East-European countries. As you know, the communism has
liquidated for decades morally and physically the noble status. It's therefore
only after the fall of the communist regime possible, that we officially started
activities in order to restore the principles and bases of the nobility in
Slovakia, and therefore we have created in 1998 the Aristocratic Association of
Slovakia, with the goal to give live again to the noble status. Two
important problems stood in front of us:

The
first task was to fasten on the old noble traditions and to build the noble
professional organisation, which can inspect and certify the justness of
using the noble titles. For this goal it was necessary to create an
operating Heraldic and Genealogical centre, bond to different
archives, and especially to establish a Noble Register.

The
second problem was to find the ways, how to connect the traditional noble
legislation with the existing democratic government law system. It was
important to create the rules of co-existence of the organised
aristocracy and the democratic administrative system.

We were successful in both of these tasks. The registration in the Noble
Register of the Aristocratic Association of Slovakia accepts the strict rules of
noble traditions. It is possible to make registration only after presentation of
complete prescribed documents (genealogical and historical), which confirm the
appurtenance to the noble status. On the other hand, Ministry of Interior
of the Slovak Republic officially approved the Statute ofthe
Aristocratic Association of Slovakia, with the right to certify and confirm
the justness of using the noble titles. The Certificate about the noble
origin, issued by our Association, is accepted by democratic administrative
system and its authorities.

It was yet necessary to prevent from the infiltration of communistic ideology
and its influences. It is made by the system of member-intake in the
Aristocratic Association of Slovakia, which comes out from the "Declaration
of the Head of the Aristocratic Association of Slovakia". This system
excludes to take in our membership such persons, who during the communist period
have behaved contrary to all basic principles of nobility. They are not allowed
in our association, even if they can proof their noble origin.

Today we are the only noble organisation in the east European countries, which
has established and carries the Noble Register. This has brought us the
attention of many aristocrats from different European countries, especially form
the post-communistic countries. They ask for the confirmation of their nobility
through the registration in our Noble register, or they ask for help or advice.So it is happened, that our Association incidentally
has got into the function as a centralco-ordination workplace for the
question of renew of the noble status.

A last point we would like to mention is that the Aristocratic Association of
Slovakia is relatively small organisation. Today we have about 40 members, 17 of
them are registered in our Noble register. The others provide the necessary
genealogical documents step by step, and they are in the waiting period. The
candidate cannot use his noble title before the registration in Noble
register.

Ladies and gentlemen, we hope we have made the organisation of the Aristocratic
Association of Slovakia a bit more clear. This our work is very difficult. It
demands very much information and especially the access to them. It also demands
the collaboration with other European noble organisations. We hope, that our
participation and synergism with CILANE will open us this possibilities.